Omnia Online (Omnia Online Series Book 1)

by Christopher Booth

  He thought the best thing about her was she had a warm, caring attitude for anyone she considered a friend.

  In some ways, she reminded him of Samantha. Except Samantha was all out with no breaks, she was never relaxing to be with… A person could relax with Sarah…

  Focus, damn, he was thinking with his balls again… He didn’t ever use to think like that about Sarah, maybe it had to do with holding her while she cried, or the fact that she was breaking up with Ben, or maybe because she was in his apartment drinking tea, looking so cute and vulnerable.

  Damn he was getting a chubby…

  Focus, this isn’t about you, you owe Sarah a favor. And she needs space, not a rebound relationship…

  Kevin closed the front door. Then walked over and cleared off the chair facing Sarah, and then sat down.

  “Sarah, you’re my friend, how can I help you?” He said softly.

  For a second Kevin thought that little bit was going to send her into tears again.

  He moved over and gave her a one-armed hug again, and said; “Listen, you’re hurting and angry, and you probably feel like your whole world is coming apart. It’s not, you have friends. And if you need a place to stay, you can stay here. But I have some things I need to do in Omnia, and I need about four hours before I can help you with anything more. Please make yourself at home.”

  Half way through this little speech she was back to crying, and he was back to holding her.

  A few minutes later, she pushed him away and said, “It’s ok… I’m ok, go…”

  “Oh, umm, could you please not look toward the game pod behind the couch for a few minutes. This is something I have to do naked.”

  This got both her attention and curiosity. “Um, if there’s something you have to do naked, isn’t the bathroom over there?”

  She asked looking at Kevin’s now tented sweat pants. Kevin blushed, “No, I mean I have to remove my clothes to get into the pod, so can I get some privacy please.” He begged.

  When she turned back to Kevin, he quickly dropped what little he was wearing and jumped into the pod.

  ***

  Back in his virtual home, he had one thought on his mind.

  “Samantha, help please.” He begged.

  Samantha appeared, wearing negligee, knowing exactly what he needed; he picked her up in a bridal carry and moved quickly into the bedroom carrying her.

  She smiled and gladly helped him work off his frustrations.

  ***

  After a while, Kevin realized that it would be nearer to six hours real time before he would be able to get free.

  He had made commitments to meet with Aggressive Solutions, and for psionic training. He would also need to do some shopping for clothes, on the cheap.

  For now, it was late and past the bedtime, he had been keeping the last two days. So he took a quick shower. Then he went to bed, gave Samantha a kiss good night, and went to sleep.

  Chapter 16 – A Little Progress

  Kevin spent the morning after breakfast, in the training room.

  He had a meeting with the Aggressive Solutions people at 5 pm, and he needed to shop for clothes. So he decided to train until 3 pm. That should give him enough time to shop for clothing and be back in the Guild Hall in time for the meeting.

  The days training was physical, weapons, martial arts, and meditation.

  About thirty minutes before Kevin was supposed to log in online, Samantha interrupted his training. She took Kevin into the bedroom and started removing his clothes. When Kevin asked her why she was doing this now, that he had no time since he had to log in soon, she said; “You have trouble focusing when your around attractive women like your new trainer. It will help if you're spent, we will give you a workout now so you will be relaxed later.”

  She then went to work, and Drake decided just to enjoy the moment.

  ***

  Drake woke up in his room in the Guild Hall.

  He looked around the room and discovered a feature that he had not seen before. This room had something called a clothing refresher.

  “Samantha, what is a clothing refresher, is it something like a washing machine?”

  “Yes, it’s a standard fixture in most starships, and homes. There was a shared refresher area on the same floor as your room in the hostel you rented. Many hotels and long-term motels offer them in rooms as a convenience for their customers. Refreshers are faster and take fewer resources than your primitive washers and dryers.”

  “Hey, I sense some snobbery here, are you too good for us primitives with our washers and dryers?”

  “Not too good for you Horatio, my Horatio.” said Samantha in a teasing voice.

  Drake smiled at her games.

  “Ok, time for me to get naked with you again I see.” said Drake as he started removing yesterday’s dirty clothes.

  “Can you tell me how a primitive, such as I, can use this refresher?” asked Drake.

  With Samantha’s help, it took about five minutes to get his clothes clean.

  ***

  Drake found an underground tube station that came up just two blocks from his attorneys, and very near the second-hand clothing store he visited before.

  He repeated the shopping he did a few days ago. Thinking that maybe he would be able to use the outfits he was buying more than once this time.

  He left the blaster carbine back at the Hall, but he kept his right hand close to his blaster pistol and a careful look out.

  He didn’t expect to be followed on this trip, but he was feeling more on edge since his hostel room was invaded.

  He thought he might have spotted someone more than once, and he felt like he was being watched, but he could find no threats, no matter how hard he looked.

  With his shopping complete, he returned to his room in the Guild Hall to drop off his purchases.

  Drake still had about thirty minutes before the meeting, so he spent that time exploring the Hall, before making his way to the third floor and finding the meeting room.

  ***

  When Drake opened the door to the small conference room, where he was supposed to meet Agapetux of Aggressive Solutions, he found not one person, but four waiting for him. There was one Dwarf male, one Elf female, one Karurian male, and one Human female. His first thought was that it was odd to see such a mix of peoples in one small group. From his experience, people seemed more comfortable being around others that look a lot like they did. This suggested to him that this group had little interest how normal people did things.

  The Dwarf male was nearest to the door and stood up to shake his hand.

  Once the Dwarf had him by the hand, he said, “About fucking time you called us back. What were you waiting for, the Pirates to start shooting you before you got off your ass?”

  “Drake looked the Dwarf right in the eyes and said; “Yeah, I’ve been busy. I’m new to this ball of mud, and I’ve had a lot to do to get settled. So, you know who I am, who are you, and why should I care?”

  The Dwarf let out a deep laugh, released Drakes' hand and reached out and slapped him on the arm. The hit to his arm almost caused Drake to stagger. “Good, you’re no mewling coward. I like it when a man stands his ground and gives my shit straight back at me.”

  Then the Dwarf sat back down at the head of the table and said; “I’m Agapetux, and this is my team.” He first pointed to the Karurian to his left and said: “This is Tredido, to his left you’ll see Lorna-Fei, and at the other end of the table is Sidonia.”

  ‘So,’ thought Drake ‘the Elf girl is Lorna-Fei, and the Human girl half-hiding her face is Sidonia.’

  Drake took the seat to The Dwarf’s right.

  “And you all know that my name is Drake.”

  “From your note, I know that you think I have something that the Black Blood pirates want, and your group is interested in the bounties on the pirates. Simple question, why would I be interested in your help, and what’s in it for me?”

  “You bit off more than a
Droogart could chew boy, you need us if you don’t want to be dead by this time next week, and that’s what’s in it for you, your life.” said Agapetux.

  “Then no thanks,” said Drake as he started to stand up. “Any pirates that come after me, I’ll kill them and get the bounty. How cool is that, no hunting, just set a trap, right? Isn’t that what you really want, me to bait a trap?”

  Drake started to walk towards the door.

  Then a female voice called out “Stop.”

  And Drake turned to see who spoke.

  The Elf girl addressed Agapetux; “He’s confident like he thinks he has a chance on his own. If he leaves, that’s it.”

  Agapetux looked at the girl for a moment, then said; “Ok, boy I’m listening, but it had better be worth our time.”

  Drake turned back to his seat, but this time, he didn’t sit. He just pushed the chair in and placed his hands on the top of the seat’s back.

  “Whenever I go fishing, the bait always ends up dead, no matter if I get the fish or not. Bait is a high a risk game. It should come with some reward. I have already registered to hunt these pirates, so I want a cut if I’m the bait that brings them in. I get 35%, you get 65% of any you kill or capture with my help. If I get the kill or capture, you get 35%, and I get 65% of the bounty. So to the ones to bag the most game, go the biggest prizes.”

  Agapetux said; “Boy you don’t know who or what you’re dealing with. In this game, there is no better team this side of the Imperium for either mercenary or bounty work. And the gang you want to go up against has earned a real bad name for themselves the hard way; you don’t have a chance… Sure you got lucky in that forest… we did our research, don’t look surprised. But you’ll need a lot more than a bit of luck to get out of the mess you are in… And I have a team to pay, so we get 80% on our catch, and you can have… hum, 55% of yours.”

  “Ok, I’m in agreement to those terms, except for one more thing. This bait wants to survive, so you need to equip me with better armor, something light so I can move and fight in it.” offered Drake.

  Agapetux looked at the rest of the team, and either got nods or else some other type of indication of agreement, then he focused on The Human girl at the end of the table. “Sid, do we have anything that might work for him?”

  The girl gave a mumble that sounded like “yeah, think so.”

  The way she acted made Drake think she was one of those girls who were shy around strangers.

  Agapetux said; “Deal, we’ll put something together for you that’s better than that light hunting vest you’re wearing. Now that we have a deal, I understand from our contacts that you have a data cube that this gang wants. Sid is going to want to take a look at that, to see if she can crack the encryption. There might be a way we can spin the data off later for a reward, or there may be other ways we can make some legitimate money, depending on what’s on the cube.”

  Drake said, “It’s my cube and not part of the deal we made. I understand that the guild will hold us to our verbal contract, right?”

  “Yep, any verbal contracts made in the presence of a validating agency are binding. And our A.I.’s are validating agents,” said Agapetux.

  “Then we need to make a second deal on the datacube. How about when we’ve dealt with the pirates to our mutual satisfaction, we try to find out what is on the cube… I was going to ask 50% on the data cube deal, but then I thought about it. Your team will have to do the work cracking it, and if there is any negotiating to do, that will be on your team to handle as well, so I’ll settle for 25% on whatever we can make off the data-cube together. I suppose the Guild will want its cut?”

  “Yes,” sighed the Dwarf. “The Guild has a way of stretching what it considers mercenary work sometimes. Ok, deal on the cube, and we will worry about that later.”

  “I should tell you, I’ve been contacted by the Pirates, and they want me to give the cube to a lawyer for them. I was thinking we could make that work, by giving them a dummy, and trying to trace it back to the gang, what do you think?”

  As soon as Drake mentioned the connection the team perked up, quite a bit.

  Agapetux said, “Sid?”

  Sidonia said in a near whisper, “I could try, but they might have a way to validate the cube afore it gets to them.”

  Agapetux said, “So we need the real thing to make a mock up, is that what you mean, Sid?”

  She nodded, “Yeah-um.”

  “Well I’m busy for the next two hours, and the place I have it locked up…” said Drake. “Samantha, can we get to the lock box after the class tonight?”

  “Not on a Saturday night, no.” replied Samantha.

  “Ok, I’ll have to meet you and get the data cube on Monday after work. Unless you want to pick me up from my job at lunch and run me over to the security company where it stored,” said Drake.

  They ended up agreeing to get the datacube on Monday at noon. And they would try to have his armor ready by then.

  Drake thought that they seemed eager to get the job rolling as soon as possible. He shrugged it off; they were probably in as much need of the bounties as he was.

  Drake felt he had made the best deal he could, given the situation, and he was sure that when the shoe dropped, he would want all the help he could get. Even so, he had mixed feelings about the deal he had just made. He hated giving up his independence and control, but these people looked competent, so he felt his chances had just increased quite a bit.

  Drake had Samantha collect contact information then Drake left the room. The time for his new class was coming up.

  ***

  The meditation class was on the top floor, and the meeting place was listed as ‘The garden room’. Drake didn’t know what that meant until he reached the top floor. Most of the middle of the top floor was a one hundred meter square indoor garden, covered by a massive glass skylight. The sky outside was a deepening blue as the sun was casting long shadows and would set in about an hour. The top floor garden had paths throughout, and Drake could see four people gathered near Allacia, in the center of the garden area.

  Arranged in front of Allacia were eight exercise mats that were spaced out in two rows of four. Which Drake took to mean that they were still waiting for three more students?

  Instead of joining the group gathered near Allacia, Drake stayed to the side and started working on stretches. He figured if he could loosen up his muscles it might help with the meditation skills he had been working on. He was hoping to make some progress figuring out where to start in learning to use psionic sensing tonight. Two more students joined the group, and Allacia asked everyone to take a mat. There were four female students and two male, besides Drake, and they each found a mat. Drake waited for everyone else since he was new to the group, and didn’t want to claim a mat that someone else was used to having.

  There were two mats free so Drake started to go to the mat in the front row on the left. Just as he reached the mat, there was a bellow from a man he had not seen before, who grabbed him by the shoulder yelling “That’s my m... AHHH!”

  Drake, who wasn’t expecting to be grabbed from behind, had reacted without thinking. As the man spun him around, he grabbed the man’s arm and used the momentum of the spin to duck under the man’s arm and forced the man into a flip.

  One moment the man was yelling about something and grabbing Drake, the next he was laying on his back with the wind knocked out of him.

  Drake was just as surprised as everyone else. He had been training martial arts a lot and had just reacted.

  “Sorry, I just reacted to the unexpected attack.” Said Drake, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized that it was an attack of a sort and that he wasn’t sorry.

  Drake then said, “You can have the mat, I’ll just use the other. You could have just asked.”

  Allacia said, “Brice, what are…”

  At the same time as Allacia spoke, Brice started to bellow “I’m going to kill you little man.”


  Brice was starting to get to his feet while yelling. Brice looked like a pretty large man, now that Drake had a chance to consider things. Drake took this as a threat of continued action, so before the man could get to his feet; Drake kicked him in the jaw. And the man went down and stopped moving.

  Drake checked his pulse, yes he was still alive.

  ‘Crap,’ thought Drake, ‘now much trouble am I in now?’

  Drake looked at Allacia, who looked stunned by the events, “He’s alive, is there someone we should call?”

  Allacia said, “Security is already on their way.” And she pointed to her right behind Drake; he turned to see two security guards jogging toward the scene.

  Drake just waited and didn’t move. He thought that anything he did might look threatening, and he really didn’t want more trouble. Trouble was the opposite of what he came here for… He felt like God had it in for him.

  At that moment a thought came to Drake’s mind. As a child, his mom used to take him to Sunday school, and although Drake wasn’t a religious man, some things stuck in his mind. For some reason, just as he was lamenting his current situation and blaming God, he could almost hear a quote something about ‘to those he will rise up, God will first strike down.' Drake was sure he was wrong about the quote, but he stood there puzzling the thought as the security arrived at the scene.

  Drake hoped this wasn’t the case here, he felt that real life had already kicked him down some. Between his mother’s death, and his father’s drinking; he used to blame himself for both.

  Just before the officers said anything, Allacia turned to Drake and said; “Relax, this isn’t about you.”

  And just like that, Drake felt his fear and anger drain away. Drake felt relaxed, and immediately suspicious, did she do something?

  The security officers went first to Allacia and asked her what happened. She told him that Brice had attacked Drake, that when Brice was on the ground, he wouldn’t accept an apology, and was making threats against Drake’s life. So Drake knocked him out.